


The Goddess-Kissed

by Rubynye



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Ficlet Collection, Foursome, M/M, Minoan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-12
Updated: 2010-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-06 05:04:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The morning after Elijah's close call, Sean is told the tale of Dominic and Billy's meeting.<br/>Includes six ficlets in the same universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Goddess-Kissed

**Author's Note:**

> The setting is the height of Minoan Crete.  
> The other chapters are various drabbles and ficlets in this same 'verse.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The main story, "The Goddess-Kissed".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedications: For different reasons, this story is for [](http://aprilkat.livejournal.com/profile)[**aprilkat**](http://aprilkat.livejournal.com/), [](http://vensre.livejournal.com/profile)[**vensre**](http://vensre.livejournal.com/), and [](http://mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com/profile)[**mirabile_dictu**](http://mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com/).

Title: The Goddess-Kissed  
Fandom: LOTR RPS, historical AU  
Pairing: hobbitpile, Sean/Elijah, Billy/Dom  
Rating: PG-15

Being a scribe, the first thing Sean noted as he came to wakefulness was the situation of his hands. One was outflung across the cushions, twined with blunt fingers tipped with bitten nails, Elijah's beloved hand. But the other rested on a muscular back, whose owner lay snoring gently against Sean's breastbone, and who was decidedly not Elijah.

Sean took a deep breath, opening his eyes to look up at the red spiral dado painted round the white plaster walls of Elijah's chamber. From the corner of his eye he saw a thatch of gold-streaked hair on his chest, a curved cheek and crooked chin over his heart; Dominic lay pillowed on Sean, sunk in the depths of sleep only he could reach. His arm stretched across Sean's belly, his hand on Elijah's hip tangled with Billy's; the rest of Billy was tucked to Elijah's back as if they wore one skin.

Sean's closest friends since he'd come to the Temple of the Double Ax, since ever in his life, lay asleep about him in the soft morning light. Sean sighed again for quiet happiness, tracing the spiral fresco with his eyes, watching the scarlet curves glow in the sunlight---

\---like blood on pale paving---

He shuddered before he could master himself, but thankfully no one woke; he pushed the resurgent fear away before it could take him, though the shameful memory of it burned his cheeks as crimson as the spiral on the wall. After yesterday's bull-dance, after a bull-leaper's death and Elijah's near-fall (and Sean had to hold himself stiff as wood to suppress a quiver at that thought) the four of them had danced and drunk and sung together in joy at his escape, that the Goddess had granted him another day. Sean had let the others' happy madness take him, for it was that or shake and weep.

Now his head pounded a little at the memory of wine and kisses, but not all that badly, and the light wasn't painful. Carefully turning his head, Sean looked at Elijah, beautiful eyes smudged messily with kohl, beautiful mouth slack with sleep; beyond him Billy lay with his face tucked to Elijah's shoulder, only wheat-brown hair visible in unruly tufts.

Sean sighed contentedly, smiling just a little, willing himself to be happy. He was young and learned and Elijah's beloved; he lived in the Temple of the Double Ax, the diadem of the beautiful, vast city of Knossos; he was a scribe in the staff of a kindly, generous nobleman, Lord Ian. He had much to bless the Goddess for weaving into the web of his life.

And, he told himself, it was full morning, so he should be up and about that life. Sean lifted his hand from Dom's back to rub his eyes, wondering how to disentangle himself from one sea-noble and two bullboys in time for a bite of bread and a swish of wet cloth before his lord needed him. Wasn't there to be a royal audience that morning?

He shifted carefully, but once he sat up it was all over. Dom had a sailor's reflexes, and both Lij and Billy slept like cats; they all woke, Elijah's fingers tightening round Sean's. "Bright Sun," Dom mumbled so indistinctly Sean wondered if the greeting should count; then Elijah raised his head to blink at Sean, the kohl further brightening his luminous eyes, so utterly beautiful Sean almost forgot his own name. Elijah, his Lij, bull-dancer pride of the Temple of the Double Axe. "Bright Day," Sean murmured to the sunbursts in Elijah's eyes, and Elijah dazzled him with his smile.

Billy laughed at them and slid himself up and over Elijah, laying a giggle-evoking kiss to his ribs on the way, to trade a kiss with Dom. "Bright Day to you! How's your head?" he asked Sean, who shrugged and smiled, then couldn't help but laugh himself when a groaning Dom turned his face inward along Sean's chest. "It's too early to be so bright," Dom moaned over Sean's skin, the warm breath tickling and stirring him. Sean sternly reminded himself that he needed to be out of bed, and soon.

"I told you last night to sleep, but you would tumble," Billy retorted; Elijah merely laughed, pressing his face to the side of Sean's neck. Dom snorted and squirmed over Sean and Elijah to drop himself on Billy, who spilled over with laughter as they wrestled. Freed, Sean turned to Elijah, who kissed him, tasting of sleep and spice, winding slender strong arms around his neck; it took all Sean's strength to murmur over those firm-soft lips, "I should---"

"Stay here," Elijah replied, wrapping the rest of himself round Sean with a vine's litheness and a bull-dancer's speed. Billy looked up from beneath Dom's shoulder to say, "I was up before, so I sent a page with word that you're ill."

"But, Lord Ian---!" Elijah halted Sean's protest with a hand over his lips, and Dom and Billy threw themselves on him like bull-grapplers, pressing him back down to the cushions. "He can spare you," Lij murmured in Sean's ear, then licked along its curve; Sean shuddered beneath the press of his three friends, with warmth and skin prickling against skin and Elijah's gentle bite.

The tangle was growing heated, and Sean's cheeks flushed as he struggled against the mounting tide in his blood. Such free Island ways still flustered him, and bull-dancers were as wanton as warriors for much of the same reasons; embarassment and rousedness bubbled up together into laughter. "I surrender, I surrender," Sean cried, slapping at the arms entwining him just hard enough to be heeded; they let him up, though not without snorts from Dom and Lij and another piping laugh from Billy. "Do none of you have anything to do?"

"We have the morning," Billy half-sang, leaning against Sean, Dom's head in his lap. "We don't have practice till after the noon meal." Sean stroked his hand through Billy's ruffled hair and set out after the water-pitcher on the windowsill.

"Besides, I'm owed a day," Elijah said cheerfully, pinching Sean's buttock as he clambered over him. Sean yelped and captured Elijah's wrist; Lij laughed, tilting his face up, and unable to resist, Sean kissed him again.

That was his undoing. Somewhere in the midst of the kiss, sometime while losing himself in the warm press of Elijah's firm-petal mouth, the first unfurling to wet heat and a nimble tongue, Sean saw again behind his eyes the image of Elijah tumbling sideways, limbs unstrung and boneless, grace fled and an ivory horn plunging towards him---

Elijah grunted into the kiss, and Sean realized he was clutching him, so tightly he could feel Elijah's heart pounding against his, but he couldn't command his arms to let go. All he could see was what hadn't happened, Elijah white and red on the flagstones, his life spilling from a great ragged hole torn by the bull, the dancers spinning round him singing the death-hymn. Elijah had been one of those dancers, yesterday, Sean knew, it had been another who'd lain in a pool of crimson, but he couldn't see it, he could only see Lij dead in the Bull-Court, could only clutch his lover's living body tighter yet.

"Sean." Billy's voice and breath over his ear, strong small hands curving over his shoulders; only under those steady hands did Sean realize he was shaking. Dom's hands, too, fingers beringed in stone and bronze, gently unpeeling his fingers from Elijah's lean flesh. "Sean," Billy murmured again, and Sean managed this time to let go, to unwrap his arms from Elijah, who fell back taking a deep draught of air. "You nearly crushed me!" Elijah cried cheerfully, but his smile faded and his eyes widened as he reached up to Sean's cheek. "You're weeping?"

Sean only felt the tears on his face when Elijah touched them. "I am not," Sean insisted, turning his face away, angry with himself for dimming the bright morning. Movement drew his eye; he glanced up at Dom, who was leaning forward to embrace them both, but looking to Billy. The concern all over his mobile face smote Sean's heart, and he dropped his gaze, reproaching himself.

Billy laid a kiss on Sean's ear, soft and light, then got to his feet, trailing soothing hands along Sean's skin before releasing him. "Did we ever tell you how we met, Dom and I?" Billy asked, voice light again, as Sean heard pottery scrape and pouring splashes. Dom leaned his head on Sean's shoulder, and Sean felt the stubbled slide of his smile; Elijah leaned on the other, as Billy brought back a cup of water and tilted it for Sean to drink.

The water was cool and sweet, and so was Billy's voice as he sat down before Sean and took up the tale, Dom's hand sliding over Sean's knee to meet Billy's. Somewhere across the Temple, a priestess was singing.

"Four years, Dom, has it been?" They smiled at each other. "Four years ago I was the toast of the Temple---" "you still are!" Elijah put in---"watching over the striplings being trained---" he nudged Elijah as he spoke---"when I met a haughty, grey-eyed noble youth just arrived from Tylissos."

"Not haughty, but terrified," Dom said, cheek gently rasping Sean's shoulder. "Here I was in Knossos, Mother City, in the Temple of the Double Axe, sent to trade for my family, missing my home, lost in mazes of glamor that made even Tylissos look small and mean, and I can tell you it's as fair and splendid a town as any. And then they threw a bull-boy at me, whose like I've never seen even at home, dressed like a golden peacock with eyes bright as beryls."

"You shouldn't talk of peacocks, when you dress like a bull-dancer yourself," Sean said, and Billy laughed and nodded as Dom pretended to pout. "I've fallen into their flashy ways," Dom said mournfully, and Elijah dove laughing across Sean to kiss him. Sean watched them, picturing a smooth-cheeked young Dom, his head awhirl with the wonders of Knossos; not too long ago Sean had been in just such a beglamored state, and it was a rare day still when something in the Temple or the City didn't dazzle him.

No, there was no such day, Sean corrected himself, as Elijah turned those blue-bright eyes to him and leaned to kiss him. Elijah dazzled him, every day.

Dom's voice tugged at Sean's ears as Elijah resettled himself against Sean's shoulder. "I was enspelled," Dom cried as he collapsed onto Billy's lap, who laughed and ran fond fingers through his hair. "I so lost my wits that I asked the King's own aide, who had charge of witless new-arrived lads, the name of that shining bull-dancer. He glared at me, and slapped my pointing hand when they danced out into the Court, but he told me his name was Billy, and that they called him the Goddess-Kissed, for he'd been dancing six years then without so much as a scratch."

"Not quite that," Billy said, eyes opaque as faience as they looked into the distance beyond the window. "I had my scars even then. But I'd seen dancers younger than I come and dance a full career and go, to life and to death, whole teams of them, and here I still was, dancing the Bull before the Goddess. I wondered when my luck would break." Smiling, he looked down at Dom, who grinned up at him. "I should have seen the portent."

"My blood was singing with it," Dom agreed, before turning his eyes to Sean. "I thought I was caught up in the rite, a whole Court full of people with arms upraised, singing the entrance-hymn, ready to watch the Bull be danced. And yet I felt.... have you ever stood in the prow?" Sean nodded, remembering the brine-scented rush of the wind, the roar of his life in his veins, the surge of light, the exaltation. "Just so. I'd never felt it before elsewhere than on a ship; I'd thought it was only the Sea...." Dom trailed off, looking up at Billy again, who held his gaze for a long moment.

Elijah wound his arm around Sean's waist, fingers pressing in gently over his ribs. _My blood was singing_, Dom had said; Sean's blood was beginning to hum, his skin to tingle. He turned his head to press his face to Elijah's disarrayed hair, smelling cedar and coriander oil, and waited for Dom and Billy to return from memory with more of their story.

"The Goddess was kind to me," Dom said softly, all the jauntiness gone from his voice. "The Spinner of Fate, she showed me at the start exactly what thread I would tangle myself with, how soon it might snap." More brightly, he continued, "I lost myself in the dance," his eyes lighting with the memory they all shared, the circle of singing youths and maidens, the spiral dance and the tumbles and the leapers flying in arcs over the great slow bulls of Crete. Sean thought of Elijah in midair, flipping with grace, landing lightly as a bird with an exultant smile. "But I always saw Billy, where he was as he spun, as he sprang and leaped and landed, as the crowd roared their praise. I cried out for him, Billy the Goddess-kissed."

"Yes, you did, and I heard you, noisy lad," Billy replied, eyebrow arched. "I tried to think of my next jump, of the Earth-shaker and the Goddess, but all I could see in my mind were eyes grey-blue like a stormy sea, and all I could feel when I reached for stillness was that storminess." Though his tone was reproving Billy smiled at Dom, whose grin was wide and shining. "Even so, I had a dance to dance, so I took my run and set up my leap, and as soon as I jumped I could feel it go wrong."

Dom reached up to Billy's side, where his largest scar curved around him like half a second belt. Sean understood then how he'd come by it, and his breath caught in his throat. "It was so fast," Billy said, still smiling, unafraid, "and yet it was so slow. The bull, a great piebald thing, I'll always remember him, cocked his head and looked at me, smiling Death shining in his eye; he aimed his horn, and the Bull Court spun around me as I fell towards it."

"It felt like my own life ending." Dom splayed his fingers over Billy's scar. "I had just met him, all I had of him was his name and his eyes, but I already knew... I felt the shock of the horn so sharply I pressed my hand to my side; I gasped when he flew once more, tumbling through the air like an octopus."

"An octopus?" Billy broke in, sounding aggreived, and as Dom explained, tilting his head, "you looked like you had no bones," Elijah squirmed out from beneath Sean's arm, which he belatedly realized had tightened, and into his lap, leaning his head back against Sean's throat.

"I felt I had no bones," Billy said thoughtfully. "I didn't recall I had them till they rattled when I landed in the dust, and then I remembered what my fate would be if I lay there. The crowd roared in my ears like the Sea, and the bull thudded away, drawn off by the grapplers. I tried to look into the face of the Goddess, to see Her will, but all I saw were those storm grey eyes."

Dom, who had been stretching like a cat, now batted those grey eyes at Billy. "'Why don't they help him?' I demanded, forgetting myself, forgetting the Rules, and the King's Aide quite happily pinched me and hissed at me to _be quiet_, but I was so far gone I hardly noticed. I screamed, 'Billy! Billy!' like a besotted Temple maiden, and clenched my fists and prayed as he got his hands and feet beneath him. And then he stood, and looked straight at me."

Billy laughed. "By the time I gained my feet, the Veiled Priestess was beside me, axe and cup in hand. I think she was disappointed, not to have my blood for the Mother, but She didn't want it that day, She just wanted a kiss. I looked up, and there was that boy, eyes bright in his pale face, crying out to me. I think I nodded."

"I know you smiled," said Dom, and Elijah, being young, sighed appreciatively. Sean, meanwhile, marveled at their calmness. They almost had nothing but that brief meeting, they almost hadn't have their love; how could they tell the tale so lightly? To have only met Elijah and then lost him---Sean closed his eyes tightly against the thought, and pressed his face to Lij's hair again.

"And then you staggered out, till the others had led the bull away and could surround you, but I was already climbing down the stands, dodging ladies who slapped at me with their fans and men who shouted and tried to sieze me. I knew I had to be there to catch you." Dom was still speaking to Billy, who smiled indulgently and ran two fingers over his mouth, then gently nudged his face so he'd see Sean.

"It was such a scandal," Elijah put in, grin wide and wicked. "This merchant lad from Tylissos bursts out amidst the leapers at the gate to our quarters, just in time for Billy to fall into his arms, and strips himself down to his belt to swaddle Billy with his kilt. Such a scene!" Dom and Billy and Elijah laughed shamelessly; Sean felt himself incongruously blushing. "I would do that for you," he told Elijah, who smiled and kissed him. "Of course you would, but you love me. They'd just met; Dom had to tell Billy his name as he lifted him."

"I think we loved each other even then," Billy said, fingers again moving through Dom's hair as he nodded. "I know we did." Looking up, Billy asked, "how do you feel now?"

"That's a charming tale," Sean said slowly, struggling for the right words, "but.... you nearly lost each other before you had each other!"

"Just so." They both looked at him now, all three of them gazed at him now, eyes unblinking as house-snakes'. "Why do you think we told you this?" Dom asked.

Sean shook his head, chest tightening. _Islanders_. "I don't know."

Elijah snorted, his lapis-bead eyes saying _Mainlander_ clear as words. "You're from Athens. Poseidon's bull dances there, too." Sean felt his face burning, but Billy reached across, hand cool on Sean's wrist. "What Elijah means," Billy said, and now his green eyes were depthless as the sea, "is that death is the pattern and life is the dance; when we dance the bull before the people and the gods, we dance that truth, but every person lives it."

Sean opened his mouth to protest, that surely this was true, but death was still a serious matter, when Billy tilted his head just a little, and murmured, "Remember Mount Juktas?"

"What-- oh." Sean recalled then their visit to the sanctuary on its brow, the wind singing in his ears as he stood between earth and sky. The life around him, the life within him, as he had never felt it at home....

"The wind and the sea and the blood in our veins all sing the same song," Billy said, holding Sean with those sea-green eyes, and Sean's head ached with the weight of the soft words, the fullness of the song in his head, swelling through all his thought---

\---and he understood, and his heart unclenched, and the heaviness in his head burst into light.

And he was himself again, a young man sitting in bed with three friends of a bright morning, remembering that bull-dancers were also sacred.

Elijah shifted, and when Sean turned to him his eyes were a shining blue as infinite as the morning sky. "I'm not dead," he said softly. "Don't mourn."

Sean shook his buzzing head, and smiled helplessly, and kissed him, warm as sunshine and alive indeed. Then he leaned forward and kissed Billy's wise mouth. "Thank you," he said, and Billy smiled, sweet as a boy.

Dom, of course, said, "And my kiss?" and Sean laughed and let Dom press their mouths together; Billly and Elijah laughed, but Elijah's belly rumbled, so Sean pried Dom off. "We should really be up, and go for a meal," Sean said, and Elijah rolled his eyes but climbed off him, stretching gracefully before clipping on his belt and tossing Sean his kilt.

"Yes, and this scruffy urchin should shave," said Billy, rubbing Dom's chin till Dom pretended to bite him. "Have you a razor, Lij?"

"Of course I do!" said Elijah indignantly just as Dom said, "what would he use it for?"; Elijah struck him in the arm and Billy laughed at them, and Sean laughed too, warm with the morning's joy.


	2. The Goddess-Kissed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first experimental ficlet I wrote in this Minoan 'verse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you all.
> 
> I am just bowled over by the response to my little RPS AU story idea. I think I very well will write this, during the summer when I have more time. Now I just need to figure out the plot. ;)
> 
> As a thank you, and inspired by the first picture in [](http://beizy.livejournal.com/profile)[**beizy**](http://beizy.livejournal.com/)'s entry [here](http://www.livejournal.com/users/beizy/345074.html#cutid1) (without her _Defy the Dark_ I never would have thought of doing this):

Sean stepped onto the edge of the Practice Court, a bit overwhelmed by the noise and activity. Every bull-dancer in the Palace was practicing today, tumbling and dancing, flipping over Daidalos' model bull, tossing each other in the air, wrestling, and, of course, singing and laughing. When one dances with death for a living how could one be aught but merry?

They really were striking, Sean thought, the youths and maidens who danced the bull; even the plainer, slenderer ones were lifted by the Goddess' grace and their own valor, and the lovelier ones shone like godlings. Recalling his talk with the Lady Priestess Cate, Sean stopped searching for a particular face in the throng, stopped trying to follow any one dancer, and just let them flash by in impressions of bright smiles and trim limbs, arched backs and jiggling breasts, streaming hair and bright-patterned loincloths; after a few moments, as if by Island magic, the crowd seemed to part and there was Elijah, in the red Argive-embroidered breechclout Sean had given him, flying up over the bull and landing like a laughing bird. Sean's heart caught in his throat, and he gave a little gasp; Elijah's head turned, and those great blue eyes found him unerringly, and that firm-petal mouth smiled.

"Elijah!" Sean took a step forward, but Elijah held up a hand, waving bull-dancers out of his way. When he had a clear path he ran towards Sean, sprang up into the air, landed on his hands, pushed off again, and flew in an arc to land square on Sean's chest, winding all four limbs around him.

"Ooof," said Sean, staggering back a pace, dropping the clay tablet in his hand as he wrapped his arms around Elijah. The tablet hit his foot and he winced, but the pain was far less than the pleasure of Elijah wrapped round him, legs hitched above the waistband of Sean's kilt, arms round his neck. "You could have knocked me over!"

Elijah grinned down at him as the whole Practice Court rippled into laughter. "I knew you could catch me." He curled a bit and licked Sean's nose.

Sean grinned up at him, witless with delight. "You monkey." Elijah returned the grin and leaned down again, this time finding Sean's mouth with his own.


	3. Poseidon's Bird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Future-ficlet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Sean/Elijah  
> Warnings: implied character death, not in any explicit sort of way.

It was a foggy spring morning, so all Elijah's scars made him stiff and aching; Sean dressed his eyes for him, outlining them in kohl with a scribe's sure hand. "How do I look?" Elijah asked, tilting his head as Sean hooked in his earrings.

"Beautiful". Not that Sean would give any other answer.

"Old," Elijah corrected archly, and Sean laughed, winding ropes of glittering lapis and gold beads round Elijah's wrists. "The oldest bull-dancer would barely have enough years for a properly studied scribe."

"The oldest bull-leaper," Elijah repeated, with some wonder. "Billy would have been proud of me."

"He would indeed. And I am." Sean kissed Elijah carefully. "You can dance today?"

"I will do every exercise," Elijah promised. "By noon I'll be as limber as a lad of sixteen."

"Well, then, Poseidon's Bird." Sean kissed Elijah again, for luck. "Dominic and I will be watching. Go fly."


	4. Billy's Peacock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prequel to main story.

Title: Billy's Peacock  
Pairing/Characters: Billy/Dom, Elijah  
Rating: G, maybe PG at most  
Word Count: 125

The first time Dominic was mistaken for a bull-dancer, Billy laughed and Dom blushed. Indeed, it seemed an error of fate that Dom wasn't a bull-boy, sleek and graceful and strong as he was, flashy in dress and almost sounding with jewels. But when Dom asked about latecomer novices, how he might become one, Billy slid a hand up his arm and murmured, "I would have this skin stay unscarred; I dance better knowing you watch me."

So, Dom never learned to dance the bull. The third time Dom was thought a bull-leaper, Billy mischievously said, "he's not a dancer, but he _is_ a peacock;" Elijah hooted with laughter and took up the cry, and Dominic remained 'Billy's Peacock' till the end of his days.


	5. Sea-Butterfly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sequel. Warning: Deathfic, or rather, aftermath-of-death fic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Minoans saw butterflies as symbolic of the soul.

Title: Sea-Butterfly  
Rating: PG  
Characters: Billy, Dom

As soon as he might, Dominic escaped to run along the beach and turn handsprings over the cobbles, heedless of his best burgundy cloak, till weariness dragged him to his knees. Only, finally then, could Dom weep, pulling his cloak tightly about himself, taking great gulps of the warm sea air as his own inner sea poured forth.

All the while, Billy helplessly watched Dom's grief; when he could bear it no longer he leaned forward to bestow a kiss. At the fluttering touch to his cheek Dom gasped, looking up, and saw a butterfly floating away over the sea.


	6. Bronze Age Tig

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prequel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title refers to a silly game the actors played during filming, but then if you're a LOTRPS devotee you likely know that.

Title: Bronze Age Tig  
Rating: PG   
Word count: 125  
Characters: Billy, Dom, Elijah; Bean referred to  
Warning: open-eyed kissing

 

Billy followed shouts and laughter to find Dom hanging monkeylike from scaffolding, dangling something bright and flashing just out of Elijah's reach. Batting at Dom with the unlikely weapon of a green sprig, Elijah cried, "Give me that back! Sean the General gave it to me!"

"Billy!" Dom called, as Elijah began to climb, tossing the bracelet over moments before Elijah pulled him down. Before Billy had even looked at it, Elijah was on his feet again. "Billy, please?" he pleaded, lapis eyes wide.

Billy laughed. "Buy it for a kiss," he teased; Elijah smirked, and grabbed his ears to pull him in, and tasted of mint and wine. Billy peeked over Elijah's shoulder to find Dom grinning, and when Dom caught his eye he winked.


	7. Trouble in Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prequel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posed a [drabble challenge](http://www.livejournal.com/users/rubynye/121253.html) where I asked for people to give me titles.

Title: Trouble in Paradise  
Characters/Pairing: Elijah and Billy  
Rating: PG at most  
Written For: [](http://aprilkat.livejournal.com/profile)[**aprilkat**](http://aprilkat.livejournal.com/) and also [](http://teawith.livejournal.com/profile)[**teawith**](http://teawith.livejournal.com/)

 

"Let me be, Bird-bones," Billy growled, hauling the sheet over his head. Elijah flipped laughing over the bed, and Billy did peek to watch him wheel through the air, but hid again before he could be caught and before his aching head could burst like an overripe melon.

"You must be ill, if you won't even hear news." Elijah leaped over Billy again, the breeze of his passing ruffling the sheets. "A new delegation from the mainland, fresh new rubes to charm and bilk--"

"One day a mainlander'll take your head off." Billy squeezed his eyes tightly shut and wished Dom were here to distract Elijah, who bounced, heels smacking the floor, and said brightly, "One of the new scribes has wide hazel eyes."

Billy snorted. "The springtime has addled you. Let them be. And let me be." Elijah flipped onto his hands and walked on them from the room, still laughing.


End file.
